Page 99 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

“And it’s a merchant vessel. See the sails? A navy frigate has four sets, each a triple. This one only has three.”

“So what is hitting our—”

Boom.

The merchant vessel tilted wildly, its lanterns crashing onto the deck and igniting it in a blaze of fire.

“No. No!” Charis yelled as the heart-wrenching shriek of timbers tearing apart filled the air. “Sail east. Go east! They need our help.”

“We need our help,” Orayn said even as he wrenched the helm to send the boat east.

“We aren’t on fire. Nothing has tilted our boat.” Charis looked at the water, her stomach feeling as though she’d been struck. “We were just jostled on the way to the real attack.”

The merchant vessel tipped, spilling men, cargo, and bits of flaming debris into the water.

“There is no attacking fleet.” Horror stole her breath and stung her eyes. “The threat is coming from below the surface. I need to get closer.” She sheathed her sword.

“Don’t you dare tell me you plan to go into the water.” Tal’s hand wrapped around hers, anchoring her to his side.

“Not into the water. Just close enough to catch a glimpse of what we’re fighting.”

“Captain—”

As she rounded on him something broke on the merchant ship with a sharp, wet crack, and the main mast went up in flames. “We thought it was the small war frigates bringing down ships, but this is something different. Orayn will either get us clear of it as we search for survivors, or he won’t. The crew will either fight it off with cannons, or they won’t. I can’t change that now. What I can do is make sure if we survive, we know what we’re facing and can figure out how to kill it.”

“Then I’ll do it.”

“Don’t be foolish. I’d struggle to pull you back into the boat, whereas you can haul me up easily. It’s safer if I’m the one who goes.”

He glared at her. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“I’d think you’d be used to that feeling by now.”

His jaw clenched, but he slowly released her hand. “I’ll tie a rope around your waist and anchor it to the mast. But if you die, I will never forgive you.”

“I won’t forgive me either.” She unbuckled her sword and placed it on the deck and then pulled a dagger from the sheath at her ankle and stood still while he knotted a rope harness over her chest and around her waist. Cannon fire boomed, and then the unearthly, high-pitched wails that sometimes haunted Charis’s nightmares rose all around them, sending piercing pain through Charis’s teeth until the cries tapered off into that series of rattling clicks. Orayn shouted for Dec and Arden to trim the sails.

“Ship, ahoy!” Finn yelled. Charis whipped her head up to see three of the small war frigates from Portsmith, their green lanterns glowing as they bobbed in the sea at least twenty furlongs from the smuggler’s ship.

“They’re too far to be attacking the merchant vessel,” Charis said. “Plus, the attack is coming from the creatures beneath the water. So why are they here?”

Tal finished the harness, tied the other end of the rope to the mizzenmast, and then reached her side in three long steps, wrapped his arms around her, and dragged her against his chest. She fisted her free hand into the back of his shirt as he buried his face against her neck for a moment.

Another scream. More cannon fire. And Tal’s breath hot against her ear as he said, “I mean it, Charis. Don’t die.”

She pulled back, her lips hovering a whisper away from his. “I’ll do my best.”

And then she let go of him, grabbed the railing, and hauled herself over the side. The rope let out swiftly, and she plunged halfway to the water before the harness yanked her to a stop. Keeping her dagger in one hand, she braced herself against the side of the ship with the other and waited.

“Come on,” she whispered, her eyes burning from the spray of salt water as she glared at the sea beneath her. “Show yourself.”

Orayn yelled, and there was another crash from the deck, but the ship was moving out of the direct line of attack now. As it picked up speed, there was a flash of movement in the water below Charis. Something pale and vaguely human-shaped slammed into the boat once more, and Charis’s throat tightened until it felt like she was choking.

She couldn’t be certain. It was dark, and the creature had moved so fast.

But it had been humanish, even though the limbs seemed unnaturally long. There was only one sea creature who looked like that.

They neared the wreckage of the merchant ship as it slowly sank, its flames glowing against the moonlit water in streaks of crimson. There was a tug on the rope, and Charis looked up to see Tal above her, his lips set in a grim line as he hauled her toward the deck. When she reached the top, he pulled her over the side, and his hand found hers and squeezed.

---